Pilsen incubator aims to give minority, women-owned startups a boost

Emile Cambry Jr., whose 21st Century Youth Project prepares low-income middle- and high-school students for technology careers, is launching a women- and minority-focused business incubator in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood in October along with co-founder Mahrinah von Schlegel.

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The incubator, called Cibola, will offer classes and office space. In addition, the pair is creating a six-month accelerator program, called MPRCL, that will be modeled after programs such as Chicago's Excelerate Labs.

Mr. Cambry and Ms. von Schlegel plan to open Cibola on Oct. 22 and begin accepting applications to MPRCL before year-end. They describe their new ventures for Silicon City.

Crain's: What inspired Cibola?

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Cambry

Emile Cambry Jr.: Through my work with with the 21st Century Youth Project and an op-ed I wrote for Crain's, I had made a call to action for minority tech entrepreneurs and to minority entrepreneurs in general, to figure out different ways in which we could expand our reach, work together and collaborate so we could see more minority tech entrepreneurs. And I got a lot of emails and great feedback from that, but after that I didn't see anything happen. So then I thought, all right, let's put something together. The initial idea (for Cibola) was that I wanted my 21st Century Youth Project students to have entrepreneurs or different companies that they could intern with so they could build their skill sets and apply all the stuff we teach them in class. My hope was to provide a platform for teaching, educating and being able to develop these different communities.

I had worked with (Ms. von Schlegel) on the Chicago International Social Change Film Festival and knew she was passionate about a lot of the same things I was, and about bringing in a multilingual aspect and international reach, and also reaching women entrepreneurs.

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von Schlegel

Mahrinah von Schlegel: Across the board in the Chicago technology scene, I was seeing a lot of excited, interested women but not enough funded companies with women entrepreneurs. And I was going to events and not seeing enough representation of women and minorities. We want to build a place where people feel more encouraged to start (businesses). And the interest is there; we want to take that interest and help people create companies by providing level of support that may not already exist within their communities.

We are not exclusive — in fact, we want to be completely inclusive, and our doors are open to everyone — but we are specifically targeting underrepresented groups.

What can you tell me about the accelerator, MPRCL?

MvS: I can't give you many details on that because we want to keep it under wraps under we have it fleshed out a little more, but it will be a very unique model with an international component that will bring more international business in the technological sector to Chicago.

What has the process of recruiting mentors been like? Have you noticed any “mentor fatigue” because people are also involved at, say, Excelerate or 1871?

MvS: No. We're in a bit of a different sector, and we've been having people track us down, call us, even come out to 21st Century Youth Project events to discuss getting involved with Cibola. Because we're in a neighborhood that's underserviced for this kind of thing, and because we're targeting minorities, we're finding a lot of people who haven't been mentors (at other programs) because those programs haven't targeted a demographic they're passionate about. We're seeing a lot of women, a lot of Latinos and African-American mentors who are really excited and are trying to get involved every which way. It's been really overwhelming.

Why is it important or helpful to have a program like this that specifically targets underrepresented entrepreneurs?

EC: Anecdotally, when I've spoken to minorities at different incubators, I often hear 'I don't feel comfortable' or 'I don't see anyone like me' or 'I don't see anyone working on projects similar to mine.' It's that whole networking aspect. We don't want to be exclusive and say, 'Hey, let's get away from everybody else,' but I think that there's also an empowering component when you find somebody like you who has a similar interest or similar background. By going to low-income areas and showing people there that there are (other entrepreneurs) kind of like them, it's an empowering feeling.

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"Silicon City" is a weekly report on Chicago tech news and newsmakers written by Crain's contributor Steve Hendershot.